MARIONETTES in the guise of chorus girls and movie stars dance and strut before a starlit background in one of the most novel scenes ever devised and filmed in Hollywood. Cleverly carved and costumed by skilled craftsmen working under the direction of Russell Patterson, famous artist, the puppet entertainers were accompanied in their marionette musical comedy by a curious symphony orchestra made up of weird animated instruments that played themselves.

Most of the dummy performers, which are featured in the recently completed film “Artists and Models,” are about three feet high, with bodies shaped from sponge rubber and hinged moving parts carefully carved from wood. Each marionette was operated by a maze of invisible strings manipulated by groups of operators working out of the camera’s range on platforms built above the stage.

WHEN THE mad scientist in the movies pulls the switch and his fantastic machinery begins to hum and glow, causing flashes of man-made lightning to leap and crackle around the room, you can be fairly certain that Kenneth Strickfaden is somewhere in the picture.

Ever since he created the electrical effects for “Frankenstein,” Strickfaden’s genius has been in great demand among motion-picture producers when spectacular laboratory trickery can be made to fit into the plot.

Strickfaden not only created the effects for “Frankenstein,” but also doubled for Boris Karloff in sequences which called for million-volt sparks playing over his body.

Since then, he has added his wizardry to “Son of Frankenstein,” “Bride of Frankenstein,” and the other sequels; the “Buck Rogers,” “Flash Gordon,” “Sherlock Holmes,” “Chandu,” and “Fu Manchu” featuresâ€”altogether more than 50 movies in the last 15 years.

Before the web and cable news made them ubiquitous you actually had to order your “year in review” roundup on film.

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Cobwebs of rubber cement, ice cream from potatoes, candy windows, rain that is not wet, these and others movie chemists conjure.

by EARL THEISEN

IN THE motion picture world it is not possible to control nature. The movie-makers must fabricate artificial snow storms; glass that will not cut; fogs that can be controlled; bubbling, hot lava from volcanoes that are not erupting; and thousands of other things which are needed in creating movies. It is the chemist with his test tubes and laboratories who makes effects possible in great movie production. He is called upon to satisfy the various demands of the director at a moment’s notice.

To produce the effect of brisk coldness, such as vapor coming from the breath of an actor, dry ice, which is made from carbon dioxide, is placed in the mouth. Because of the extreme cold of this dry ice, the result is a mist coming from the mouth similar to the one seen in cold climates. So as not to freeze the mouth, the dry ice is placed in a container in the actor’s mouth. This same chemical “dry ice” is used in scenes where steaming tea kettles and boiling water is seen. The dry ice makes the water seem to boil.

Because there is nothing more American than making a profit off the sick!

Odd Service Brings Movies to Patients

A WOMAN invalid’s desire to see movies of the New York World’s Fair suggested a popular and profitable service to a New York motion-picture operator. Now he brings his projector to bedridden patients, entertaining them with film dramas or with travel pictures of places they would like to be able to visit. For children, his repertory includes animated cartoons.

TITLES containing or implying action do much to improve home movies, and making them can be just as much fun as shooting regular scenes. You can easily devise many ingenious titles your audience will be certain to appreciate.

Taking a picture of a title upside down, then turning the piece of film around and splicing it so the action is reversed is an old trick, but one for which new variations are constantly being contrived by 16-mm. movie makers. Charles H. Taylor, of Chicago, suggests two such variations.

MOTION pictures are being given another eye. Recently in the Academy of Sciences, in Washington, Dr. Herbert E. Ives, internationally known engineer, produced motion pictures that gave the illusion of depth, making them appear like views in old-fashioned stereoscopes.